Google is rolling out yet another way of pumping advertising onto the web with Gadget Ads, and this time it reckons it can trick you into thinking it's real "content", whatever that is.
According to the PR bumpf: "Gadget Ads are designed to feel more like original content than a typical ad." The system openly lets developers …

COMMENTS

Stuff and nonsense

"The joy of Gadget Ads is that they are interactive and fun without being intrusive"

There's no such thing.

Anything which involves animation and audio will, by definition, INTRUDE.

Hopefully though, somebody will rapidly come up with a firefox extension that blocks them. So that the advertisers actually get LESS for their money than they would have done if they'd used elementary common sense and stuck to plain, genuinely non-intrusive, HTML.

If Google does this, they are adblocked

Title says it all -- I hope they aren't seriously planning to put in noisy ads. I'm lenient, I don't just adblock everything like some people. But, two things I block -- the asshole ad sites that BYPASS popup blocking. And ads that make noise. I have seen ads that can make noise, but load muted -- that is fine. But, not ones that make noise on their own, hell no.

I wonder how Google is going to square this with people who put up Google Ads because they are fairly tasteful looking text-based advertisements? They might lose quite a few customers (that is, the website owners that let google put ads on their pages) if they go straight from text ads to the most intrusive available... I know at least 1 forum I frequent has switched ad providers because they "accidentally" let 1 noisy ad into the rotation.

I used to like Google...

When it first came out it was fab - and sort-of of the people. Now it's become a money-sucking black hole with - well, analogies fail me.

It's a bit like when you move into a new area and everything's nice and then someone moves in with a 4x4 or 2, chavvy kids, loud music and a litter problem (children or rubbish - you choose). Except in this case, it's difficult to move elsewhere.

Another one to go straight on adblock...

Adblock everything

I don't see ads more than once. All advertising is intrusive and offensive. When I need a product I usually know what it is that I need and will actively go looking for it. I do not want ads for shit I do not want forced upon me. If there is no plugin developed to block this then I will either code one myself or just add all google domains to my black list at the firewall. Fuck them! greedy money grabbing bastards. They earn enough cash without turning a search request into, well "analogies fail me" also.

@adnim

i must say, you are being rather childish. i'm sure YOUR employer advertises in some way shape or form, allowing YOU to directly benefit - think about that for a moment. how would you have the luxury of misspelling your name were it not for their ad?

so, unless you are about to advocate some sort of centrally governmentally controlled system (the likes of which are currently out of fashion as it seems), you must accept the fact that advertising is an intrinsic part of the market based society we live in.

@anonymous

I accept that ads are part of society, just as I accept war, lies, profiteering, child abuse, murder, rape and ignorance are also woven into the fabric of society. It doesn't mean I have to bend over and take it.

When are you going to stand up? I guess your anonymity answers that question.

The only advertising I advocate is Yellow Pages.

And no, the company I work for does not use pervasive advertising. In fact we do not advertise at all. Other than listing product/service on our website. Despite this we are doing quite well. So it would appear you are wrong in more ways than one. And how my company advertises its product/service relates to how I spell my nym escapes me, perhaps you would care to elucidate?

Wait and see

@ Allan Potter: Install Firefox, then get the Adblock Plus and NoScript extensions (search the Firefox site for these) for it. This will solve your problem.

I generally give Google the benefit of the doubt on these things before going off on a rantfest. They showed a good level of common sense with Adsense and I can't see them turning their backs on that philosophy now. I get the idea that this advertising style will be targeted at a particular audience (not everyone hates adverts, especially if they're well thought out, relevant and funny) and be on an opt-in or user-configurable basis. While I don't like noisy, animated or content-obscuring ads, I don't block Google text-only ads, since I regard this as a responsible form of advertising and want to encourage it.

Of course I could be wrong, in which case my Adblock and NoScript will be brought to bear. But I'll wait the outcome before I make that call.

hmmm

I've always wondered what was up with those oddly placed boxes in the middle of El Reg pages, and here all along i just thought that El Reg was retarded and didnt know how to properly format pages, i viewed it as one of those things you see, and you know its retarded, but you dont want to make fun of the retarded kid because you'll feel bad, so you dont say anything at all.

on the more serious side, i havent seen an online add in so long i tend to forget that they really exists, until one of those rare yet traumatizing moments strike and i actually open Internet Explorer, then it all comes back to me, like a hellish curse of pop up ads haunting my nightmares...

@ Deep Joy:

Firefox, eh?

Typical. What about those of us whose employers' software policy prohibits the installation of "non-standard" apps like Firefox? Are we doomed to endure ever-increasing volumes of marketing drivel when we "work" online?

The best advertising

"i'm sure YOUR employer advertises in some way shape or form"

Yes indeed. But the only advertising we use -- the only advertising we've needed to use for the last 10 years -- is visitors to our web site, resulting from "ordinary web searches not paid adverts, and more especially word of mouth recommendation by satisfied customers.

A little known fact that most bosses seem not to recognise (because you can't measure it by job losses and hypothetical savings) is that if you actually DO the job that you advertise, promptly, properly and efficiently then you get this rare breed of person called a satisfied customer who is very happy to tell others.

Paradoxically, one of the best things that ever happened to our company was our biggest customer closing down -- because the four senior people had jobs with other companies whose existing suppliers weren't so helpful and within a couple of months they were giving us MORE work than we lost.

@Stu Reeves

Hi Stu,

I'm of the old-fashioned school of thought that says reporting shouldn't be affected in any way by the publication's advertisers. The adverts on this or any other Reg page have nothing to do with the facts of this story or my opinions on them. Thanks,

Blocking

I've pretty much blocked every ad except in page texts. This put google as the only ad company that I've ever see ads from. If they go on the flash route then they get blocked too. (the nice effect of ad blocking is that pages load faster)

@Jim Bloke: so much for universal appeal

Ad blocking in IE

@ David S.

I use the "HOSTS" file ( C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc ) to block ads at work (yes it's 163KB now but I don't get popups I don't want). Edit the file with Notepad or Wordpad. Just make sure after saving your edit that the hosts file has no extention.

Don't want to see current GOOGLE ADS, add these new lines to the hosts file:

127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com

127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com

On a side note, I use it to stop being redirected to domain ad search pages if I get Fat Finger Syndrome whilst misspelin in the address bar ;-)